Community Update

ANC 5D Commissioners voted during a special meeting on Tuesday ,July 24 not to support a $5,000 grant application submitted by LCA to improve out-of-school time activities for neighborhood kids at the Patsy Hartsfield Center.

After the vote, Mayor Bowser's office immediately stepped in to support the center and make sure that neighborhood kids did not miss out on the opportunity to visit museums and enjoy improved educational activities.

ANC 5D currently has more than $100,000 available to meet the administrative needs of the ANC and support beneficial community projects. The commission, however, has never supported a grant application since instituting a formal review process in 2015.

After a protracted review process, some commissioners expressed concern about whether educational programming for children provided a public benefit and others expressed concern that the commission had not followed its own review process or met deadlines for reading the application. Several commissioners encouraged LCA to reapply. The application review had been delayed on several occasions after Commissioner Butler (5D03) stated that he had not had time to read the proposal. The Patsy Hartsfield Center is in ANC 5D03 and it is standard for commissioners to manage proposals stemming from their own area even when the impact is broader. Comm. Blacknell (5D04) and Comm. Buggs (5D06) were the only two commissioners who supported the proposal, although Comm. Buggs was unable to attend the special meeting due to health issues. All other commissioners voted to oppose.

Thanks to Mayor Bowser's leadership on this important neighborhood issue, our children still got the opportunity to take an exciting filed trip to the National Museum of African-American History and Culture on Friday, July 27. Take a look at highlights from the trip below.